The generally accepted ethnographic definition of northern Mexico includes that portion of the country roughly north of a convex line extending from the Río Grande de Santiago on the Pacific coast to the Río Soto la Marina on the Gulf of Mexico. This southern boundary coincides in a general way with the northern margins of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Northern Mexico is more arid and less favourable for human habitation than central Mexico, and its native Indian peoples have always been fewer in numbers and far simpler in culture than those of Mesoamerica. Today, the native peoples are extinct over all of northeastern Mexico; the only Indians present in that area are a group of Kickapoo who immigrated to Coahuila from the United States in the 19th century. In the west the Sierra Madre Occidental, a region of high plateaus that break off toward the Pacific into a series of rugged barrancas, or gorges, has served as a refuge area for the Indian groups of the northwest, as have the deserts of Sonora. At present only the northwestern states of Baja California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Chihuahua, and Durango have Indian populations.

Although accurate population data is lacking in parts of this region, estimates place the total population that is still Indian in language and culture at approximately 130,000, a tiny minority among the several million non-Indians of northwest Mexico.

Surviving Indian peoples of northern Mexico today fall easily into two divisions. By far the greater number are members of the first type, the ten groups which speak some language of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic stock and are traditionally agriculturists. The second type is now reduced to four groups—the descendants of nomadic bands who resided in Baja California and coastal Sonora and lived by hunting and gathering wild foods. The second type spoke various languages not related to Uto-Aztecan.

Uto-Aztecan peoples of northern Mexico have been divided into three branches—Taracahitian, Piman, and Aztecoidan. The Taracahitian branch consists of the Tarahumara of the southwestern Chihuahua; the Varohío, a small group which borders the Tarahumara on the northwest and are closely related to them; the Yaqui, in the Río Yaqui valley of Sonora and in scattered colonies in towns of that state and in Arizona; and finally the Mayo of southern Sonora and northern Sinaloa. Another Taracahitian group, the once prominent Opata, have lost their own language and no longer maintain a separate identity. The Piman branch consists of three groups: the Pima Bajo of the Sierra Madre border of Sonora–Chihuahua; the Papago of northwest Sonora, identical with a much larger portion of the same tribe in Arizona; and the Tepehuán, one enclave of which is located in southern Chihuahua and another in the sierras of southern Durango and Nayarit. The third branch of Uto-Aztecan is the Aztecoidan family, including the Cora located on the plateau and gorges of the Sierra Madre of Nayarit and the Huichol in similar country of northern Jalisco and Nayarit. A final member of this branch, locally called the Mexicanero, includes speakers of Nahuatl, remnants of central Mexican Indians introduced into the area by the Spaniards. The Mexicanero number only a few hundred and live in the mountains of Nayarit and southern Durango.

The remnants of the Baja California Indians—the Tipai (Diegueño), Akwa’ala (Paipai), and Kiliwa—live in ranch clusters and other tiny settlements in the mountains near the American border. Speaking Yuman languages of Hokan stock, they are little different today from their relatives in American California. A small number of Cocopa in the Colorado Delta in like manner represent a southward extension of Colorado River Yumans from the American Southwest. The remaining Seri are found along the desert coast of north central Sonora. This famous group also speaks a language of Hokan origin and is probably related to now extinct peoples who lived across the gulf in Baja California two hundred years ago.

Missions and isolation helped to preserve the several surviving Indian groups of northwest Mexico through the colonial period (1530–1810), but all underwent considerable alteration under the influence of European patterns. Nearly all the agricultural tribes adopted some form of Roman Catholicism and much Spanish material culture. It was at this time that the traditional cultures of northern Mexico were formed, the basic patterns continuing until the present. Many groups faded away—gradually losing their languages and identities in the emerging mestizo, or mixed-blooded European and Indian population, the predominant people of present-day Mexico. Only the Huichol, Seri, and Tarahumara remained primarily aboriginal cultures, but even these groups adopted many items and ideas from the Spanish invaders.

Today, all these peoples exist as ethnic enclaves surrounded by, and in most cases sharing their lands with, non-Indians and manifesting some of the characteristics of ethnic minorities everywhere. There is competition for lands with mestizo ranchers and, in most groups, a conscious desire for survival as distinct cultural entities.

Traditional culture patterns

Although in some aspects of culture the Indian groups share much with other rural Mexicans, psychologically they tend to be very distinct. The basic orientation of life of the traditional Indian cultures is primarily religious in that they look to the supernatural to solve their problems and tend to see their own lives as requiring continuous service to the deities. This is in strong contrast to the practical and materialistic orientation of other northern Mexicans. The average Uto-Aztecan Indian in this area is reserved toward outsiders, especially non-Indians, and prefers not to be too much in evidence. The ideal person is industrious, carries out his religious obligations, and does not seek change in his traditional lifeways. In contrast, the Seri and Yuman groups, being of another tradition, are less inclined to secrecy and more aggressive toward outsiders.

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